All Elite Wrestling
All Elite Wrestling, LLC (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion founded in 2019. Its inception was announced by entrepreneurs Shahid Khan and his son Tony, with the former acting as the promotion's lead investor, while the latter serves as president and CEO of the company. Professional wrestlers Cody as well as Matt and Nick Jackson, collectively known as The Elite, are the promotion's inaugural contracted talents, serving as both in-ring performers and executive vice presidents alongside fellow professional wrestler Kenny Omega, whose signing was announced in February 2019. History In May 2017, journalist Dave Meltzer made a comment that the American professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor (ROH) could not sell 10,000 tickets for a professional wrestling event. The comment was responded to by professional wrestlers Cody and The Young Bucks (the tag team of Matt and Nick Jackson), who were top stars signed to ROH and good friends both inside and outside of professional wrestling as part of the group Bullet Club (and, later, The Elite). They promoted and held an independent professional wrestling event called ALL IN in September 2018, featuring wrestlers from ROH as well as other promotions. The event sold out in 30 minutes and had the largest audience in attendance for a professional wrestling show in America held and organized by promoters not affiliated with WWE or World Championship Wrestling since 1993. It was also the largest crowd for a non-WWE wrestling event in America since World Championship Wrestling was acquired by WWE. The event was attended by 11,263 people. The event was acclaimed, and it led to much online speculation that Cody and The Young Bucks would expand their ambitions and create their own professional wrestling promotion or do a second All In event and even certain people in the television industry were very impressed with the show. Formation On November 5, 2018, several trademarks were filed in Jacksonville, Florida that indicated the launch of All Elite Wrestling. Names filed for trademark included: All Elite Wrestling, AEW All Out, All Out, AEW, Double or Nothing, Tuesday Night Dynamite, AEW Double or Nothing, and several logos. In December 2018, Cody, The Young Bucks, and several other wrestlers left ROH. The official announcement of AEW's creation came at midnight Pacific Time on January 1, 2019 in an episode of Being the Elite, a YouTube web series created by and featuring The Elite. Also announced in the episode was AEW's first event AEW Double or Nothing. On January 2, 2019, Cody and The Young Bucks officially signed with the promotion as competitors as well as serving as AEW's co-Executive Vice Presidents, while entrepreneur, football executive, and longtime wrestling fan Tony Khan was announced as the president of the company. Khan and his father, Shahid Khan, were reportedly backing the promotion. The Khans are billionaires and part of the ownership group of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham F.C. Brandi Rhodes was announced as the company's chief brand officer on January 3, 2019. On January 8, 2019, the company held its inaugural press conference on the forecourt of the TIAA Bank Field, where they announced talents that were going to perform as part of the promotion, including SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Scorpio Sky, and Frankie Kazarian), Britt Baker, Joey Janela, "Hangman" Adam Page, Pac, and Chris Jericho. They also announced a working relationship with Chinese professional wrestling promotion Oriental Wrestling Entertainment (OWE) founded by the wrestler Cima. On February 7, 2019, the group held a press conference where tickets were released for Double or Nothing. Other big announcements included Kenny Omega joining as a competitor and the company's fourth co-Executive Vice President, as well as the signings of Penta El Zero M, Rey Fénix, Trent Baretta, and Chuck Taylor, and a partnership with Mexican promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide. Programming AEW Dynamite is the current flagship show for AEW. It airs live weekly on Wednesdays at 8pm est on TNT in the United States and TSN in Canada. The show airs in the United Kingdom on Thursdays at 7pm on ITV Hub, Fridays at 11:20 PM on ITV 4, Sundays at 8:20 AM on ITV 4 and a one hour highlight show of AEW Dynamite on Mondays at 11:45 PM on ITV. Championships *AEW World Championship *AEW Women's World Championship *AEW World Tag Team Championship *AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring External links * Profile * Official website * Twitter Page Category:American wrestling promotions Category:All Elite Wrestling Category:Promotions